The petition
Pursuant to Federal guidelines which recommend one school nurse for every 750 students, we, the undersigned, request the Madison County School Board to take measures to appropriate adequate funds to meet the federally recommended level of nursing care in each of the schools in our school district.
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Modern school nurses not only care for minor emergencies, bumps, and bruises but also manage comprehensive school health programs and educate students to the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. Additionally, they administer medications for asthma, diabetes, ADD, and a myriad of other special healthcare needs. According to the American Federation of Teachers, 5.6% of all students receive prescriptions at school. Without a nurse to administer these medications, they are typically administered by someone who is not comfortable doing so because they recognize that they are not qualified to act in case of an emergency.
In 2005, the National Association of School Nurses reported that Mississippi averaged just one nurse per 1509 students, half the federally recommended number. The Health Resource and Services Administration has suggested that by 2020 the State of Mississippi will have a nursing deficit of 22%. The governor and other state government officials are working to implement strategies such as HB1132(Haskell-Sprayberry Public School Nurse Program) to avert a nursing crisis. To complicate matters, recent news reports have exposed unacceptably high numbers of licensure exam failures by recent nursing graduates.
With the impending nursing shortage in the State of Mississippi, we must do a better job of recruiting our children to become nurses. What better way to encourage our children to become nurses or develop an interest in the allied health fields than to have ever-present role models for them in the school? And what better place to begin implementing a school nurse program than in schools such as those in the Madison County District that consistently produce the top students? By strategically targeting the top students we ensure higher graduation rates of nursing and allied health professionals.
In our district, we do a very good job of educating our children. We teach the virtues of reading, writing, and arithmetic in the classroom and teamwork and competition through athletics. But we also teach the things we value by how we spend our money. It is said that a society is judged by how well they care for their sick and aging. What will the school district's decision regarding the priority of school nurses teach our children about Madison County?
We believe the health of all our children is worth the investment of hiring nurses in each of our schools. Hiring a school nurse both protects our children and complements our state's goal of encouraging our students to become nurses. By placing a school nurse in each of the schools in our district, we pave the way for a better future for all our children and the State of Mississippi.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that the school board appropriate funds for the hiring of school nurses at each of the schools in the Madison County District.
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